Jami Bernard
Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Doug Pratt
Ray Pride
Stu VanAirsdale

..Gary Dretzka
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Ray Pride

Basic
Directed by: John McTiernan

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Ravel's "Bolero" is a dance of temptation. We hear a snippet of its opening movement over the opening and closing of Basic, a who and whydoneit set in the Canal Zone circa 1999. The subliminal music cue is both clever and not clever enough. Had the filmmakers truly been faithful, the movie would have employed the coda of the piece for the fade out.

Basic is a cat's cradle of a story that becomes so enmeshed in the convolutions of plot and twists that while viscerally absorbing to watch becomes unnecessarily impenetrable. (The title does not refer to "training" or "instinct" but a stray line about murder being basic . whatever that means) It's an experience not unlike getting lost in a house of mirrors and, on reflection, less substantive than the one-dimensional images. The film is a joy ride but any post-viewing dissection only takes away from the fun.

Befitting the genre, the action opens on a dark and rainy night. A squad of Army Rangers is dropped in the jungle for a mock survival exercise. However, when a helicopter comes to pick them up, only two have survived and its clear the others perished by the hand of man, not god. Of the durable duo, one is rushed to the hospital unconscious and the other isn't talking to military investigator Osborne (Connie Nielsen).

The dilemma for base commander Styles (Tim Daly) is that the clock is ticking to solve the mystery before the two men are taken away by senior command. With six hours left, he calls in former Army interrogator and now DEA agent Tom Hardy (John Travolta) to get to the truth.

James Vanderbilt's script is rife with cliché and it's to director John McTiernan's credit that he dispatches the set up with all due speed. The reasons behind Styles' concerns are near transparent, Osborne's antipathy toward Hardy is hackneyed and the "so what" is a moving target a marksman couldn't hit.

The film meanders through unheard asides, testimony that lacks credulity and telling close ups. Yet, it embraces convention with such ferocity and assurance that it largely doesn't matter that the construct is less sturdy than a house of cards. It's also emboldened by a uniformly first rate cast that brings conviction to an otherwise laughable situation in which witnesses spin yarns and drop clues a la Hansel and Gretel all the way to the last plot twist.

In a perverse way it is the anti-Rashomon, zigzagging toward a possible truth through the evidence of eyewitnesses. However, it's not that things are not what they appear to be . rather everyone is doing overtime when it comes to creating the big lie. It is a maze not unlike John Fowles' The Magus, but not nearly as thoughtful or informative.

Basic is diverting for a lot of reasons and in a time of dispensable entertainment that puts it near the top of the class when marked on the curve. It's silly though not inane - a rousing, well crafted campfire tale that rages briefly before being reduced to ash.

A Sony pictures release of a Phoenix Pictures production. Produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnie Messer, James Venderbilt, Michael Tadross. Director, John McTiernan. Screenplay, James Vanderbilt. Camera, Steve Mason. Editor, George Folsey, Jr. Music, Klaus Badelt. Production design, Dennis Bradford. Costumes, Kate Harrington. Stunt coordinator, Gary Davis.

John Travolta (Tom Hardy), Connie Nielsen (Capt. Julia Osborne), Samuel L. Jackson (Sgt. Nathan West), Giovanni Ribisi (Kendall), Brian Van Holt (Dunbar), Tim Daly (Col. Bill Styles), Harry Connick Jr. (Vilmer).

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Release Date: March 28, 2003
Rated: R

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Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Harry Connick Jr., Taye Diggs

Produced by: Mike Medavoy, Lee Nelson, Dror Soref, Michael Tadross

Written by: James Vanderbilt, Cathy Rabin



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Distributor: Columbia TriStar

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Review Date: March 30, 2003